Diversityhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/diversity
en-usSun, 02 Aug 2015 17:24:12 -0400Sun, 02 Aug 2015 17:24:12 -0400The latest news on Diversity from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-releases-diversity-goals-for-first-time-2015-7In an industry first, Pinterest is publicly releasing its diversity goalshttp://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-releases-diversity-goals-for-first-time-2015-7
Fri, 31 Jul 2015 07:37:15 -0400Rob Price
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/55bb56a8dd08959a768b45ab-1551-1163/456953302.jpg" alt="Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann" data-mce-source="Getty Images Entertainment" /></p><p>Pinterest is taking a positive step towards addressing Silicon Valley's diversity problem: The social network is now <a href="https://blog.pinterest.com/en/our-plan-more-diverse-pinterest">publicly releasing its diversity targets online</a>.</p>
<p>It is, <a href="http://fusion.net/story/175513/pinterest-quotas-for-diversity/">as Fusion notes</a>, the first of any company in the industry to do so.</p>
<p>In a blog post by chief creative officer Evan Sharp on Thursday, Pinterest says it is making some headway: "Our number of female employees [has grown] from 40% to 42%, [with] engineering interns increasing from 32% to 36% female, and women engineers hired out of school increasing from 28% to 33%."</p>
<p>But, Beard writes, "we have more work to do." The company has set itself goals for 2016, and is publishing them to help measure its progress.</p>
<h2><a href="https://blog.pinterest.com/en/our-plan-more-diverse-pinterest">They are</a>:</h2>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">Increase hiring rates for full-time engineering roles to 30% female.</li>
<li class="li1">Increase hiring rates for full-time engineers to 8% underrepresented ethnic backgrounds.</li>
<li class="li1">Increase hiring rates for non-engineering roles to 12% underrepresented ethnic backgrounds.</li>
<li class="li1">Implement a Rooney rule-type requirement where at least one person from an underrepresented background and one female candidate is interviewed for every open leadership position.</li>
</ul>
<p>The Rooney rule refers to an NFL policy to interview minority candidates for coaching and other senior roles at clubs. Just three days ago, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/28/why-tech-needs-the-rooney-rule/#.vecyxg:khjh">TechCrunch published an op-ed calling for an equivalent of the Rooney rule in the tech sector</a>. Written by Twitter employee Sammy Ahmed, it said such a rule would "help expose hiring managers to candidates they may not have otherwise considered ... provide qualified minorities access to jobs that their network would have historically precluded them from learning about, and thus applying for ... [and] create more sustainable and diverse companies."</p>
<p>Pinterest engineer Tracy Chou has been one of the leading advocates for increased diversity in tech. In 2013, <a href="https://medium.com/@triketora/where-are-the-numbers-cb997a57252">she published a blog post on Medium called</a> "Where are the numbers?" where she called out tech companies for not releasing hard data on diversity. She wrote:</p>
<p class="p1" style="padding-left: 30px;">The actual numbers I&rsquo;ve seen and experienced in industry are far lower than anybody is willing to admit. This means nobody is having honest conversations about the issue. While companies do talk about their initiatives to make the work environment more female-friendly, or to encourage more women to go into or stay in computing, there&rsquo;s no way of judging whether they&rsquo;re successful or worth mimicking, because there are no success metrics attached to any of them.</p>
<p>Since then, tech companies have increasingly begun to share&nbsp;this data. The figures aren't always encouraging &mdash; <a href="http://time.com/3904408/google-workplace-diversity/">in Google's second annual report, published in 2015, women held just 30% of jobs</a>. But with the push comes an increased awareness of the issue, and renewed efforts to tackle it.</p>
<p>For its part, Pinterest has laid out a number of strategies it intends to pursue. These include expanding the number of universities it recruits from, "[having] every employee participate in training to prevent unconscious bias," and introducing a "training and mentorship program."</p>
<p class="p1">As it stands, only 19% of Pinterest's engineering team is women &mdash; and just 18% of its leadership is.</p>
<h2 class="p1">Here are Pinterest's full numbers:</h2>
<p class="p1"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55bb5dfbdd0895791f8b45a9-1400-2240/pinterest_demographics_scale_0.jpg" alt="pinterest demographics diversity 2015" data-mce-source="Pinterest" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-releases-diversity-goals-for-first-time-2015-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/singing-computer-martin-backes-whitney-houston-ballads-2015-7">There’s a computer that perpetually sings 90’s ballads and it’s weirdly perfect</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-are-spending-millions-on-bias-training-that-isnt-working-2015-7Companies are spending millions on bias training that isn't workinghttp://www.businessinsider.com/companies-are-spending-millions-on-bias-training-that-isnt-working-2015-7
Thu, 23 Jul 2015 11:38:00 -0400David Miller
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55a946512acae719008b7a81-2637-1978/gettyimages-461180134.jpg" alt="Google Offices" data-mce-source="Mark Wilson/Getty Images" /></p><p>Facebook recently redoubled its efforts on bias training when its diversity numbers <a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/06/facebook-diversity-2015/">barely budged</a> from last year, now at 16% female, 3% Hispanic and 1% black among its tech workers.</p>
<p>The company <a href="http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/06/driving-diversity-at-facebook/">reworked</a> its Managing Bias course to be &ldquo;harder hitting&rdquo; and is &ldquo;rolling it out to our teams across the world.&rdquo;</p>
<p>This kind of training typically tries to increase diversity by creating an inclusive workplace that hires, retains and promotes minorities.</p>
<p>Common activities include lectures and group discussions on how biases about gender, race and other categories can shape our everyday decisions.</p>
<p>During a <a href="http://www.publicpolicyexchange.co.uk/events/FG02-PPE2">gender equity summit</a> this month in Brussels held by the nongovernmental organization Public Policy Exchange, many panelists echoed the call for bias training. The push for action makes sense. Find evidence of workplace bias? Train it away.</p>
<p>There&rsquo;s just one problem: bias training usually <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000312240607100404">fails to increase workplace diversity</a>. Raising awareness of bias can <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2014-43472-001/">even strengthen it</a>. When designed well, training can be one useful tool among <a href="http://www.aauw.org/research/solving-the-equation/">other diversity initiatives</a> such as assigning responsibility for diversity to special managers and task forces. But companies often <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ctx.2007.6.4.21">spend millions</a> on poorly designed training.</p>
<p>Bias training isn&rsquo;t cheap. A one-day course for 50 people costs an average of US $2,000 to $6,000, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303754404579308562690896896">estimates Howard Ross</a>, who founded the diversity consulting firm Cook Ross Inc. It also takes time from employees' jobs.</p>
<p>Tech companies say the resources are well-spent because bias can threaten business when it&rsquo;s reflected in the products they produce. A group of mostly male engineers, for instance, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/unlocking-clubhouse">tailored the first car airbags</a> to adult male bodies, &ldquo;resulting in avoidable deaths for women and children.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Only if people who use technology also create it can we &ldquo;get the kind of innovation that we need to solve problems,&rdquo; <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/05/05/google-raises-stakes-diversity-spending/26868359/">argued Nancy Lee</a>, Google&rsquo;s vice president of people operations. In 2015 alone, Google will <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/05/05/google-raises-stakes-diversity-spending/26868359/">spend $150 million</a> on its diversity initiatives, which include bias training.</p>
<p>Training is the most popular initiative to increase workplace diversity, according to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000312240607100404">a study of 829 tech and non-tech private companies</a> over 31 years. Four in 10 companies offered bias training in 2002. Yet training had &ldquo;no positive effects in the average workplace,&rdquo; <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ctx.2007.6.4.21">the study found</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/55b0fe682acae76e098b7db7-989-788/percent-of-women-in-computer-science.png" alt="percent of women in computer science" data-mce-source="The Conversation" /></p>
<p>Diversity efforts have been especially futile in the tech sector. The percentage of women among US tech workers <a href="http://www.aauw.org/research/solving-the-equation/">has steadily declined</a> over the past two decades, for instance, now standing at 26%. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going backwards in a field that&rsquo;s supposed to be all about going forward,&rdquo; said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in <a href="http://recode.net/2015/02/24/watch-the-full-video-of-kara-swishers-interview-with-hillary-rodham-clinton-video/">a February interview</a>.</p>
<p>Training programs often fail because they don&rsquo;t use evidence on what actually works. They can backfire when &ldquo;they place pressure or blame on attendees,&rdquo; argued <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1245936">a 2014 review paper</a> in Science. The review paper recommended four elements for designing effective training, including framing diversity as a shared community challenge and using active learning exercises, not just lectures.</p>
<p>When such design elements are used, training can promote inclusive behaviors among managers, according to <a href="http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/calling-all-white-men-can-training-help-create-inclusive-workplaces">one study</a> at an engineering company. But the current evidence is thin.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I hope that in 10 years we will have some theory-driven, solid, validated programs for prejudice reduction,&rdquo; <a href="http://www.aauw.org/research/solving-the-equation/">said Corinne Moss-Racusin</a>, lead author of the Science paper and assistant professor of psychology at Skidmore College. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we are there yet.&rdquo;</p>
<p><iframe width="800" height="450" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PLz2dlCnWuY"></iframe></p>
<p><em>Video: Corinne Moss-Racusin describes her research on gender bias in science and technology. After 27:00, she focuses on policies to change gender bias and her ongoing research on bias training.</em></p>
<h3>Collecting and using data is key</h3>
<p>Before launching a new product, tech companies will test how it works under many conditions and collect lots of data. Launching bias training should be the same.</p>
<p>As a core part of its diversity strategy, Google collects data on where bias exists and how to change it, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLjFTHTgEVU">described Brian Welle</a>, Google&rsquo;s director of people analytics.</p>
<p><iframe width="800" height="450" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nLjFTHTgEVU"></iframe></p>
<p><em>Video: Brian Welle describes Google&rsquo;s strategy for creating an inclusive workplace. At 29:10, he talks about how Google collects data to change gender bias.</em></p>
<p>Welle&rsquo;s team, for instance, noticed that women software engineers were nominating themselves for promotion at lower rates than men. So a senior manager sent an email to all junior engineers describing the data and nudging women to apply. That simple, targeted action worked. Women&rsquo;s self-nomination rates soared, also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/04/02/google-data-mines-its-women-problem/">eliminating the gender gap in promotion</a>.</p>
<p>The promotion example is a small success. Like Facebook, Google&rsquo;s diversity numbers <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2015/06/01/googles-diversity-numbers-changed-little-in-past-year/">barely moved</a> from last year, now at 18% female, 2% Hispanic and 1% black among tech workers. But experimenting with targeted actions and monitoring the outcomes is a step in <a href="https://hbr.org/2014/10/hacking-techs-diversity-problem">the right direction</a>.</p>
<p>Without data, organizations may try to solve problems that are already fixed. The hiring of science and engineering tenure-track faculty actually <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1418878112">favors women</a>, for instance, contrary to <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v495/n7439/full/495033a.html">some popular claims</a> about pervasive bias against women. Though <a href="https://storify.com/kejames/still-a">surprising to some</a>, the results <a href="http://www.spsp.org/blog/strong-preference-for-hiring">stood up to scrutiny</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55b103762acae72c008b94d5-1563-788/bias-against-women-by-applicant-competence.png" alt="bias against women by applicant competence" data-mce-source="The Conversation" /></p>
<p>The simple truth is that bias varies greatly across contexts. Biases <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0036734">tend to modestly favor men</a> in situations where applicants&rsquo; competence is more mixed, for instance. Companies should use such findings to target where action is needed.</p>
<h3>Combining research and action</h3>
<p>At last week&rsquo;s summit in Brussels, some panelists questioned whether more research is needed to end gender bias. Research has already documented bias, some argued. We need action plans instead, not more research.</p>
<p>But the choice between research and action is a false dichotomy. Research is needed to identify what actions will be effective. Some diversity consulting firms only have testimonials, not rigorous evidence, to show that their programs work. Companies should not hire such firms.</p>
<p>Every action plan for diversity should include monitoring data on what works and where further action is needed. When something does work, tell the world &ndash; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/04/02/google-data-mines-its-women-problem/">just like Google did</a>. Only by combining research and action can we expect to debug tech&rsquo;s diversity problem.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://theconversation.com/profiles/david-miller-163531">David Miller</a> is a doctoral student in psychology at <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/northwestern-university">Northwestern University</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="http://theconversation.com/tech-companies-spend-big-money-on-bias-training-but-it-hasnt-improved-diversity-numbers-44411">original article</a>.</em></p>
<script async="async" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/44411/count" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" type="text/javascript"></script><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/traits-successful-people-have-2015-7" >I've spent years working with successful people, and I found they all share these 5 traits</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-are-spending-millions-on-bias-training-that-isnt-working-2015-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sleep-habits-successful-entrepreneurs-better-nights-sleep-2015-7">The sleep habits all successful people share</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-transgender-inclusive-companies-2015-7The most transgender-friendly companies in Americahttp://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-transgender-inclusive-companies-2015-7
Fri, 10 Jul 2015 09:26:00 -0400Rachel Gillett and Skye Gould
<p dir="ltr"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/559f022c69bedd853f014807-1200-924/sf-pride-parade.jpg" border="0" alt="SF pride parade"></p><p>America still has a long way to go when it comes to transgender inclusion in the workplace, but some companies are championing the way by instituting policies and practices that embrace diversity.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"There are literally hundreds of major businesses that have adopted gender identity protections, gender transition guidelines, and, increasingly, transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits," Deena Fidas, head of the <a href="http://www.hrc.org/topics/workplace">Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation's Workplace Equality Program</a>, and co-author of the <a href="http://www.hrc.org/campaigns/corporate-equality-index">Corporate Equality Index</a> (CEI), tells Business Insider.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The CEI rates almost 4,500 American companies and organizations on their policies, benefits, and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Of the more than 300 companies that earned a top CEI score of 100% in 2015, 72 stood out as the best companies for promoting workplace equality for transgender employees.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The following companies offer the most transgender-inclusive health insurance policies; cover gender identity in non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies; have LGBT employee resource groups, provide diversity training on sexual orientation and/or gender identity; have a diversity council; publicly support LGBT equality under the law; don't engage in corporate action that would undermine the goal of LGBT equal rights; and provide gender transition guidelines:</span></p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/559ef26c69bedd906a34f54c-1200-1332/bi_graphics_most-trans-inclusive-companies.png" border="0" alt="The Most Transgender Inclusive Companies in America"></p>
<p dir="ltr">According to Fidas, some of the earliest adopters of transgender-inclusive health insurance policies or the inclusion of gender identity in non-discrimination policies include Aetna, American Airlines, Apple, JP Morgan Chase, and Nike.</p>
<p dir="ltr">More recently, she said, businesses like CIGNA have created innovative programming like its LGBT diversity organization to foster transgender inclusion in the everyday workplace environment.</p>
<p dir="ltr">These kinds of initiatives are especially important considering the many barriers transgender people face in the working world.</p>
<p dir="ltr">According to&nbsp;<a href="http://endtransdiscrimination.org/report.html">the National Transgender Discrimination Survey</a>, 90% of those surveyed reported experiencing harassment, mistreatment, or discrimination on the job or took actions like hiding who they are to avoid it; 47% percent said they had experienced an adverse job outcome like being fired, not hired, or denied a promotion because of being transgender or gender non-conforming; and twice as many transgender individuals experience unemployed compared to the rest of the population.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Employers that take meaningful steps to facilitate greater transgender inclusion in their workplaces, from non-discrimination protections to inclusive benefits, are not just doing the right thing for workers, but they are strategically setting themselves apart from other companies competing for talent and innovation," Fidas says.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Comprehensively addressing transgender inclusion is critical to remaining relevant as broader social attitudes, as well as legal mandates, continue to advance."</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/best-companies-for-lgbt-employees-2014-3" >The 25 Best Companies For LGBT Employees</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-transgender-inclusive-companies-2015-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employee-perks-2014-12">Jeff Bezos Slams Silly Google Perks Like Massages</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/google-fights-unconscious-bias-2015-7Why one Google designer encouraged his team to get drunk before testing productshttp://www.businessinsider.com/google-fights-unconscious-bias-2015-7
Wed, 01 Jul 2015 18:47:00 -0400Jillian D'Onfro
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5594193f69bedd7532d8d3ce-1200-924/google-glass-dog.jpg" border="0" alt="Google Glass Dog "></p><p>Like a lot of tech companies, Google "dogfoods" its own products internally.</p>
<p>That means that Googlers will often test new gadgets or software pre-launch to work out bugs, validate their worth, and give feedback and suggestions on their capabilities.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Ideally, the dogfooding process helps designers and engineers spot issues that they can weed out before unleashing the product on the world.</p>
<p><span>But several recent Google employees tell Business Insider that the company's super-nerdy, relatively homogeneous make-up can can sometimes lead to questionable product decisions.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span><span>"To get a product to launch, you have to garner the will of a bunch of Googlers," one former Google exec says. "So, it had to be something that Googlers would want to use."&nbsp;</span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>One sure-fire way to get Google employees excited about something in the dogfooding stage, he continues, was to add data-centric features and charts.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"I really believe products over-index to what a Googler would want, so that dogfooding goes well," he says. It's easy to add features that appeal to engineers, so those features end up shipping, even if they may not be valuable to a wider audience.&nbsp;"Products that should be so simple and easy end up 'nerdy.'"</p>
<p>Despite&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-diversity-statistics-update-2015-6">some progress</a>&nbsp;in increasing its diversity, the company is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.google.com/diversity/">still mostly run by white males</a>, with&nbsp;a culture that celebrates nerdiness (and once had a reputation of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-sales-team-larry-page-2014-8">making non-engineers feel like second-class citizens</a>). Embracing a passionate geek-out is all well and good, but it does mean that the company needs to continually check itself for unconscious biases.</p>
<p>Google actually <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/05/12/google-unconscious-bias-diversity/27055485/">enrolls employs in formal classes</a> to learn to combat subtle prejudices, which can span boundaries like race, gender, physical abilities, and intelligence levels.&nbsp;</p>
<h2><strong>The problem showed up in failures like Plus and Wave</strong></h2>
<p>Another former employee says he noticed the problem when the company built "Circles" in Google Plus. The feature allows users to create groups to sort other users into, without letting those people know what group they're part of. Users found the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-to-google-plus-2015-4">methodology unnecessarily confusing</a>.</p>
<p>This employee says that he thought part of the problem was that Googlers often forgot that most people didn't have their internet-savviness and tolerance for complication. (Google Plus has since all but fizzled out and been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/big-changes-coming-to-google--2015-5">broken up into different pieces.</a>)</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/559468ee6bb3f79b088670c5-1200-924/beer-computer.jpg" border="0" alt="Beer Computer">He encouraged his designers to do a "drunk test" when dogfooding their products. In other words, have a few beers and then try it, to help fight their assumptions about the level of awareness and attention that users would have when dealing with Google products.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"You were building tools for yourself," Lars Rasmussen, a former Googler who now <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-facebook-engineer-lars-rasmussen-said-goodbye-to-go-to-weav-2015-6">works for an interactive music startup told Business Insider</a>.</p>
<p>Rasmussen worked on Google Wave, a now-defunct product that was supposed to be the ultimate collaboration tool. The company eventually killed Wave because there wasn't enough user interest: It was just too complicated. As Business Insider's Nich Carlson put it, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-wave-still-makes-me-feel-stupid-and-angry-2010-5">Google Wave made him feel stupid and angry</a>.</p>
<p>The problem, Rasmussen says, is that the team forgot that not everyone thinks and works like a Googler — and doesn't want to!</p>
<p>"I still run into people who loved Wave — who thought it was the best ever and can’t believe that Google canceled it. And whenever that happens, it's like I’m looking at a mirror-image of myself," Rasmussen says. "Someone who is similar to myself in skill, experience, and profession. And that’s just not a mass market."</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4fea23e4ecad04834700000c-400-300/2009-wave.png" border="0" alt="Google Wave R.I.P.">Rasmussen went on to work at Facebook, where he led the team building its enterprise collaboration product, Facebook for Work. It hasn't launched out of beta yet, but he's particularly bullish on it because it has zero learning curve for anyone who uses regular Facebook.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Google has&nbsp;<em>tons</em> of products where it nailed this. Android is the world's most popular phone software, Gmail had hundreds of millions of users at last check in 2014, and you can't get more basic and easy to understand than search.</p>
<p>But outliers like Google Plus, Wave, and Glass, do stick out as flops because of their complications or geekiness.</p>
<p>"People pay thousands of dollars to let lasers onto their eyes to avoid putting things on their faces," another former employee griped. "And then look what they did with Google Glass! C'mon."&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/internapalooza-interviews-with-tech-interns-and-college-students-2015-6" >Silicon Valley interns get paid up to $7,500 per month — here's what they gossip about</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-fights-unconscious-bias-2015-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-maps-no-service-save-offline-2015-6">How to use Google Maps when you have no phone service</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/white-america-is-slowly-being-replaced-2015-6White America is slowly being replacedhttp://www.businessinsider.com/white-america-is-slowly-being-replaced-2015-6
Tue, 30 Jun 2015 14:59:00 -0400William H. Frey
<div class="lede">
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/537e77f7ecad04517ca1f542-1200-800/rtxz6x3.jpg" border="0" alt="mexican american flag">While media attention continues to focus on the racial issues in America’s biggest cities and its most racially diverse regions,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-113.html">newly released census data</a>&nbsp;makes plain why we need to expect a more racially diverse America everywhere.</p>
<p>It is because the rapidly aging US white population is no longer contributing to gains in the number of the nation's youth.</p>
<p>The new statistics, for July 2014, show that the median age of whites has reached an all-time high of 43.1, while the national median age is 37.7. For Hispanics the median age is 28.5, and for those of two or more races it's 19.8.</p>
</div>
<p>The impact of white aging is especially pronounced within the population under age 20. Among this group, which includes late millennials, now in their teens, and the emerging post-millennial generation, there was an absolute decline in the number of whites between the 2010 census and 2014 (see figure).</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5592d1f96bb3f7436b169e99-840-306/pop1.jpg" border="0" alt="pop1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As I show in my book, "</span><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2014/11/diversity-explosion" target="_blank">Diversity Explosion</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">," the decline in the population of white youth was already apparent in the past decade. Whites have not stopped having children (their fertility is slightly below replacement), but the aging of their population means that proportionately fewer white women are in the childbearing ages. Going forward, more whites will age out of the nation's younger population than will be born into it.</span></p>
<p>The new data shows that this pattern is persisting and, at least for the near term, leading to small declines in America's younger population overall, since minority gains among the under-age-20 population are smaller than white losses.</p>
<p>Both patterns, declines in the number of all young people and declines in the number of young whites, are pervasive. Between 2010 and 2014, 46 states registered losses in their under-age-20 white populations, and 37 showed declines in youth overall. (<a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/06/30-bill-frey/Table-1.xls?la=en">see table</a>)</p>
<p>Among the 14 states (including D.C.) that gained youth, most achieved those gains because white losses were more than counterbalanced by minority gains. This was the case in Texas, which led all states by gaining nearly a quarter of a million young people — and minorities, especially Hispanics, accounted for all of that gain and then some. In only a handful of states, including Utah, North and South Dakota, and Hawaii, as well as D.C., did whites contribute to total youth gains.</p>
<p>More important is the fact that all of the 37 states experiencing losses in their under-age-20 populations experienced white losses that minority gains could not counter.</p>
<p>The loss of white youth pervades communities within states as well. Among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, 59 experienced losses in their under-age-20 populations, and all of those except one (El Paso) registered white youth losses. (<a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2015/06/30-bill-frey/Table-2.xls?la=en">see table</a>)</p>
<p>Overall, 84 of the 100 metro areas lost whites under age 20, including 26 that gained youth overall, because minority youth gains more than canceled out those losses. Yet as with states, several migrant-magnet metros, including some in Texas, such as Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, and others in the South and West, such as Denver and Raleigh, are gaining white and minority youth.</p>
<p>The pervasiveness of white losses among the nation's youth is most vivid when looking at the nation's 3,100-plus counties (see map). Eighty-eight percent of counties (2,780) showed a loss in their under-age-20 white populations between 2010 and 2014. These include large swaths of rural and urban counties in all parts of the country. And while some counties have youth populations that are much "whiter" than others, the vast majority displayed rises in the minority shares of their populations since 2010 and especially since 2000.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5592d2356bb3f74b71169e90-1200-924/pop-8.jpg" border="0" alt="pop"></p>
<p>The aging and eventual numeric decline of the nation's white population is a demographic fact of life. The Census Bureau's recent population projections indicate that there will be&nbsp;<a href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-tps86.html" target="_blank">an absolute decline in our white population</a>&nbsp;after 2026. These new Census estimates, however, show that white decline is already occurring for the population under age 20, not only nationally but in broad regions of the country.</p>
<p>The nation's youth population is projected to show modest gains over the decades to come, but only because of greater growth for today's younger minorities, whose gains will counter the continuing declines of younger whites. Already in 2014, the population under age 20 was 47.8% minority; this share will rise to 52% in 2025 and to 55% in 2035.</p>
<p>Because tomorrow's increasingly minority-driven youth and labor force population will be vital to maintaining a robust economy and to supporting a much more rapidly growing senior population, it is important to pay attention to the needs and opportunities available to the highly diverse post-millennial generation — not just in selected parts of the country, but everywhere.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-nearly-one-in-three-americans-owns-a-gun-2015-6" >Nearly 1 in 3 Americans owns a gun</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/white-america-is-slowly-being-replaced-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/columbia-study-nyc-rat-viruses-bacteria-2014-10">Researchers Just Discovered 18 Mysterious Viruses In NYC's Rat Population</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-goldman-sachs-partner-behind-misty-copeland-2015-6There is a Goldman Sachs partner behind the world's most popular ballerinahttp://www.businessinsider.com/the-goldman-sachs-partner-behind-misty-copeland-2015-6
Tue, 30 Jun 2015 10:49:00 -0400Portia Crowe
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/559297606bb3f7825d169e96-1200-924/misty-copeland-9.jpg" border="0" alt="Misty Copeland"></p><p>When the American Ballet Theatre's Misty Copeland hits the stage, there's more than meets the eye.</p>
<p>To get to her position&nbsp;– as one of the country's most popular ballerinas, a lead in the current production of Swan Lake, and a hopeful principal dancer for the company&nbsp;– Copeland has networked, campaigned, and even used the services of a Goldman Sachs partner.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-30/the-banker-and-the-ballerina-how-goldman-partner-waltzed-misty">Bloomberg's Amanda Gordon</a> detailed the relationship between Copeland and Valentino Carlotti, who leads an institutional client group in Goldman's sales and trading division, and who's played an important role in the ballerina's ascent to fame.</p>
<p>Carlotti is a "part adviser, part benefactor" to Copeland, according to the report. When they met, he began inviting her to galas and social events, and introducing her to important people in New York City's cultural and financial worlds.</p>
<p>He likened the ballerina to a banker, and commended her "physical and mental toughness, the poise, the preparation"&nbsp;– qualities you need to be successful on Wall Street.</p>
<p>Both Carlotti and&nbsp;<span>Copeland are black, and</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;Carlotti acknowledged the barriers that Copeland might face in an industry that, like Wall Street, is dominated by white people.</span></p>
<p>"When pursuits of excellence comes in the form of someone like Misty, a black woman, it might just change perspective on what pursuits are for whom," he told Bloomberg.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-30/the-banker-and-the-ballerina-how-goldman-partner-waltzed-misty"><strong>Read the full story over at Bloomberg »</strong></a></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-goldman-sachs-partner-behind-misty-copeland-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/misty-copeland-lessons-learned-2014-12">'Nutcracker' Soloist Misty Copeland On What It Takes To Survive In The Ballet World</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/new-facebook-diversity-report-shows-company-still-mainly-white-and-male-2015-6Facebook is still pretty much as white and male as it was a year ago (FB)http://www.businessinsider.com/new-facebook-diversity-report-shows-company-still-mainly-white-and-male-2015-6
Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:43:43 -0400Biz Carson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/558c38ea6da811e413a282da-600-/facebook-employee-2.jpg" border="0" alt="Facebook employee" width="600"></p><p>It's been a year since Facebook released its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-diversity-report-2014-6">first set of diversity numbers</a>, and <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/06/driving-diversity-at-facebook/">the latest update</a> shows the company is largely still made up of males and white people, as it was a year ago.</p>
<p>The overall percentage of male Facebook employees dropped only one percent, from 69 percent in 2014 to 68 percent in 2015.</p>
<p>It's also still predominantly white.</p>
<p>T<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">he company's U.S. employees have decreased from 57 percent white to only 55 percent. There was an increase in hiring of Asian employees by the corresponding two percent, but no other minorities.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Women at Facebook are now the majority in non-tech positions, with 52 percent (compared to 47 percent last year).</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The numbers are dismal though when you look at technical positions: Only 16 percent of women hold tech positions, representing a one percent increase in the last year.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Facebook, though, says it's working on it, and is instituting things like the NFL's Rooney Rule to make sure one minority candidate is considered for each position.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Here's Facebook's full diversity breakdown:</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/558c38a7ecad046e43839ad0-1542-1969/image-6-2.png" border="0" alt="Facebook diversity stats 2015" style="color: #000000;"><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/558c38a86bb3f7c048839acd-1542-3854/image-5-3.png" border="0" alt="Facebook diversity stats 2015"><br></span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/doxa-okcupid-style-personality-test-to-connect-women-to-employers-2015-6" >Women can take this personality test to see which startup they should work for</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-facebook-diversity-report-shows-company-still-mainly-white-and-male-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-maps-no-service-save-offline-2015-6">How to use Google Maps when you have no phone service</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/kleiner-perkins-diversity-report-doesnt-include-ethnicity-2015-6Venture firm sued by Ellen Pao issues diversity report, but forgets diversity is more than a gender issuehttp://www.businessinsider.com/kleiner-perkins-diversity-report-doesnt-include-ethnicity-2015-6
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 20:56:48 -0400Biz Carson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5584b66b6da8118a7a2bc727-969-727/facepalm-picard-6.jpg" border="0" alt="facepalm picard"></p><p>Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers, a prominent venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, <a href="http://www.kpcb.com/diversity">released a diversity repor</a>t — except that it missed out on the whole point of diversity.</p>
<p>Tristan Walker, the CEO of Walker &amp;Co., was one of the first to point out KPCB's glaring omission.</p>
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diversity. <a href="http://t.co/SmjrqoMlHS">http://t.co/SmjrqoMlHS</a>where's the part about ethnicity? </p>— tristan walker (@tristanwalker) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/612021517564510208">June 19, 2015</a>
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<p class="embed-spacer">Kleiner Perkin's report only focused on the male to female ratio among the firm and its fellow program. Ethnicity was entirely left out.</p>
<p class="embed-spacer">That's a big faux pas for a firm that's already been in the headlines this year for facing issues related to discrimination. Interim Reddit CEO Ellen Pao sued the firm for gender discrimination, but ultimately lost in March after a jury found the firm not liable.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-doerr-on-ellen-pao-suing-kleiner-perkins-i-was-sick-2015-6"><br></a></p>
<p class="embed-spacer">Still, why issue a diversity report without all sides of diversity?</p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The firm did respond to Walker and said that it agrees "ethnicity is important." In the tweet, KPCB said it plans to expand and add ethnicity for the firm, its fellows program and portfolio companies, too. A source said that will likely be released next week.</span></p>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/tristanwalker">@tristanwalker</a> Agree ethnicity is important. We’ve started w/gender &amp; plan to add ethnicity for <a href="https://twitter.com/kpcb">@KPCB</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/KPCBFellows">@KPCBFellows</a> and portfolio cos, too </p>— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/612025749650829312">June 19, 2015</a>
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<p class="embed-spacer"><span> </span><a href="http://pius.me/">Pius Uzamare</a><span> also </span><a href="https://twitter.com/_pius/status/612023044442206208">pointed out</a><span> that the firm isn't the first. Popular Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator </span><span></span><a href="http://blog.ycombinator.com/diversity-and-startups">had also posted a blog </a><span>about "diversity" then spoke primarily about women founders. The post did acknowledge founders from outside the U.S., but didn't go beyond that into any other kind of racial diversity.</span></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-diversity-report-2014-6">Facebook</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-diversity-statistics-update-2015-6">Google</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-diversity-numbers-2014-8">Apple</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> do not release their reports in piece meal chunks, so it's unclear why investors aren't following suit.</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-doerr-on-ellen-pao-suing-kleiner-perkins-i-was-sick-2015-6" >John Doerr says he 'felt sick' when he found out Ellen Pao was suing Kleiner Perkins</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kleiner-perkins-diversity-report-doesnt-include-ethnicity-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brittany-wright-kitchen-instagram-2015-6">This photographer got 100,000 Instagram followers by arranging food in a very particular way </a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/john-doerr-on-ellen-pao-suing-kleiner-perkins-i-was-sick-2015-6John Doerr says he 'felt sick' when he found out Ellen Pao was suing Kleiner Perkinshttp://www.businessinsider.com/john-doerr-on-ellen-pao-suing-kleiner-perkins-i-was-sick-2015-6
Thu, 18 Jun 2015 20:21:49 -0400Biz Carson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54e382d1ecad04e146aa4706-600-/ellen-pao-john-doerr.jpg" border="0" alt="ellen pao john doerr" width="600"></p><p>Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers partner <a href="http://www.kpcb.com/partner/john-doerr">John Doerr</a> said he was "disappointed" and "betrayed" when he found that Ellen Pao, his former chief of staff, was suing the firm.</p>
<p>"<span>I was sick. It-- it was-- it was painful. Ellen was a good chief of staff," Doerr said in an interview with Bloomberg TV's Emily Chang. "But when I read the charges, I knew from that very moment that these had no merit."</span></p>
<p>Doerr, who was joined by <a href="http://www.kpcb.com/partner/beth-seidenberg">Beth Seidenberg</a>, told Bloomberg TV in the interview that his firm has tried repeatedly to settle with Pao outside of courts.</p>
<p><span><span>"I've always believed that this matter ought to be resolved outside the courts. Believe me, from the very beginning. And it just wasn't possible," Doerr said. "If it were that easy, it would have been done. I will just tell you it's not possible."</span> </span></p>
<p><span>Pao <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-pao-trial-verdict-2015-3">lost all counts of her case</a> against the venture capital firm on March 27, 2015, when a jury found that her gender was not the motivating reason for her not being promoted to a general or senior partner, or for her termination at the firm.</span></p>
<p>In a move typical for defendants who prevail in employment lawsuits, KPCB filed in April to recover $973,000 in court fees, but said it would waive its legal costs if Pao gave up her right to appeal. Pao allegedly countered by asking for $2.7 million instead.</p>
<p>A San Francisco <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-pao-ordered-to-pay-275000-in-court-costs-to-kleiner-perkins-2015-6">judge ruled today</a> to reduce KPCB's court costs to $276,000, which is still a high bill for Pao to pay.</p>
<p>If Kleiner had settled with Pao, Doerr never thought of it as an admission of guilt because it was a question of liability, which the court found in the firm's favor.</p>
<p>"<span>I'm sorry this happened to Ellen, that it happened to us, it happened to the tech industry," Doerr said. "This isn't a question of guilt. It's a civil case and so the question is liability."</span></p>
<p><span>He continued, "<span>I think it was an error to promote Ellen into an investing partner role. That didn't work out for her. She was a really good chief of staff but not a good investor."</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Hear more from Doerr on Pao:</span></span></p>
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<p class="embed-spacer"></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-pao-ordered-to-pay-275000-in-court-costs-to-kleiner-perkins-2015-6" >Judge tentatively sets Ellen Pao's court costs at $275,000 — less than one-third what Kleiner Perkins wanted</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-doerr-on-ellen-pao-suing-kleiner-perkins-i-was-sick-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-doerr-identify-tech-superstar-2014-12">Venture Capital Legend Reveals How To Spot The Next Tech Superstar</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/black-entrepreneurs-good-business-not-social-obligation-2015-6Invest in black entrepreneurs because it's good business, not out of 'social obligation'http://www.businessinsider.com/black-entrepreneurs-good-business-not-social-obligation-2015-6
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 13:30:03 -0400Biz Carson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/557ef8c969beddce150e26fb-600-/charles-hudson.jpg" border="0" alt="charles hudson" width="600"></p><p></p>
<p>Don't invest in African-American led companies because of diversity, but because they're a good business, argued African-American founders and venture capitalists at the <a href="http://premoney.co/">PreMoney conference</a>. </p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"The more people think this is an obligation, a social obligation, that's probably not a good thing," said <a href="http://upfront.com/team/#hamet-watt">Hamet Watt</a>, a venture partner at <a href="http://upfront.com/team/">Upfront Ventures.</a> </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"There's so much research that speaks to the importance of diversity and inclusion in the innovation process. The notion that people aren't prioritizing it is a little bit surprising to me, but also an opportunity."</span></p>
<p>Many investors are missing out on the market opportunity because they're just not doing the work, said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/diishan-imira/44/7aa/689">Diishan Imira</a>, CEO of <a href="https://welcome.mayvenn.com/hello?">Mayvenn</a>, which uses stylists to sell hair extensions. Imira explained during the panel how he had to basically "start from zero" to get venture capitalists to understand what a hair weave is and why there is even a market around it.</p>
<p><span><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/557f08a96da8111c11322ae0-246-246/diishan%20imira.jpg" border="0" alt="Diishan Imira" width="400">"We don't need support. You guys are investors, you want to make money," Imira said. "What I'm saying, if you want to get some of this money, you should do the work and the research that there's not going to be ten million other investors competing with you to go get."</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Of course, the ideas have to be viable in the first place, and it can be hard to know what's a good idea for venture capital versus what's a good idea for a small business unless you're already in Silicon Valley. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span><a href="http://softtechvc.com/team_member/charles-hudson/">Charles Hudson</a>, a partner at SoftTech VC and one of the most visible <span>African-American</span> venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, said he feels like he has to make himself accessible to African-American entrepreneurs.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"<span>I also feel a certain pressure to try to help African entrepreneurs who I think are talented not work on terrible ideas," Hudson said. "It's not that they're terrible ideas in general, it's just that they're not appropriate for venture. To me, that's not unique to African Americans."</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">He also admitted to feeling "a</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">n enormous amount of pressure backing an African American entrepreneur."</span></p>
<p>"Pursuing an African American business, for whatever reason if that investment that doesn't work, the buck stops with me," Hudson said. "You realize that for whatever reason that investment's failure is likely to be scrutinized to a greater degree than that SaaS company that didn't work out. And I think about that. I wish I didn't have to think about that."</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Here's the "Black is the new Black" panel in full, which also included <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shauntelpoulson">Shauntel Poulson</a> of Reach Capital and <a href="http://marlonnichols.com/">Marlon Nichols</a> of Intel Capital:</span></p>
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<p class="embed-spacer"></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-pao-dave-mcclure-discuss-racial-diversity-at-premoney-conference-awkward-2015-6" >This conversation about black people in Silicon Valley tech was really awkward</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/black-entrepreneurs-good-business-not-social-obligation-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/baseball-diversity-statistics-economy-2014-10">There Are Only 3 African-American Players In The World Series — Here's One Theory Why</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/uk-tech-scene-diversity-us-london-2015-6A new study claims the UK tech scene is far more diverse than the UShttp://www.businessinsider.com/uk-tech-scene-diversity-us-london-2015-6
Mon, 15 Jun 2015 06:29:48 -0400Rob Price
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/557ea93fdd0895637c8b456b-959-720/eileen-burbidge-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Eileen Burbidge"></p><p>The UK tech scene is considerably more diverse than its US counterpart, with those working at startups in Britain five times more likely to be female than in America, according to a new study.</p>
<p><a href="http://startupdna.co.uk/">The research was conducted by startup accelerator Wayra</a>, and found that the UK outpaces the US on diversity issues on a number of metrics. Entrepreneurs in London are three times more likely to be female than in Silicon Valley, for example, and individuals in the capital are also twice as likely to come from a black or minority ethnic background than in New York.</p>
<p>The data drew on respondents at 222 startups from around Britain, and shows the UK is leading the pack, Wayra claims, and is "more diverse than other major startup ecosystems, including the US, Silicon Valley, NYC and Tel Aviv." Overall, however, it suggests there is still some way to go.</p>
<p>Just 30.3% of the individuals in the "startup ecosystem" are women — and when it comes to funding, men are 86% more likely than women to receive venture capital funding.</p>
<p>Over the last few years, diversity has become an increasingly important issue within the technology industry. Under pressure from campaigners to expand upon their traditionally white male workforces, big companies including Apple, Facebook, and Twitter have begun publishing yearly diversity reports.</p>
<p>Executives have also upped their rhetoric on the issue. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-discusses-diversity-promises-a-woman-speaker-at-wwdc-keynote-jackson-ahrendts-young-smith-2015-6">Apple CEO Tim Cook, for example, said diversity issues were</a> "central to the future of our company," and that "diversity leads to better products." However, 70% of Apple's global workforce is male, and of its 15 top-tier executives, just 3 are women.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/21/tech-sector-sexist-survey-guardian">In a 2014 Guardian poll</a>, 73% of respondents (who worked in the industry) said they thought the tech industry was sexist, and 52% said women are paid less for the same job than men.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uk-tech-scene-diversity-us-london-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/animated-map-displays-spread-european-language-europe-russia-asia-history-2015-3">This animated map shows how European languages evolved </a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-pao-dave-mcclure-discuss-racial-diversity-at-premoney-conference-awkward-2015-6This conversation about black people in Silicon Valley tech was really awkwardhttp://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-pao-dave-mcclure-discuss-racial-diversity-at-premoney-conference-awkward-2015-6
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 14:36:00 -0400Biz Carson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/557dc82eeab8ea7779c25a74-600-450/pao-mcclure.jpg" border="0" alt="pao mcclure"></p><p>In Silicon Valley, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/code-conference-diversity-was-a-huge-topic-2015-5"> we're getting comfortable talking</a> about the fact that there aren't enough women in tech.</p>
<p>When it comes to racial diversity, though, the conversation is just getting started. And frankly, it's awkward.</p>
<p>On Friday, I watched as interim Reddit CEO Ellen Pao and 500 Startups founder Dave McClure took the stage at the <a href="http://premoney.co/">PreMoney</a> conference for venture capitalists to talk to a room of mostly white men about diversity. (Although McClure later told us there were more people of color in the audience than at any other VC event he'd been to.)</p>
<p>Pao recently lost her own high-profile <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/just-because-pao-lost-it-doesnt-mean-gender-disrimination-in-tech-isnt-real-2015-3">sex-discrimination lawsuit</a> against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers. (She has since <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-pao-appeals-2015-6">filed a notice to appeal the decision</a> and is currently <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capital-firm-calls-ellen-paos-request-for-27-million-after-losing-trial-an-unreasonable-demand-2015-6">embroiled in negotiations</a> with the venture firm over the costs in the case.)</p>
<p>But through Pao's trial and because of Sheryl Sandberg's work with Lean In, the tech industry has become more accustomed to talking about the lack of women in the room and making promises to bring the number up.</p>
<p>Only 6% of venture capital firms have a woman partner, which has actually declined from the 10% it was 1999, according to a <a href="http://www.babson.edu/news-events/babson-news/Pages/140930-venture-capital-funding-women-entrepreneurs-study.aspx">study from Babson College</a>.</p>
<p>"So, at the average VC firm of eight people, that would be zero," McClure joked. "Which sounds about right," Pao agreed.</p>
<p>Even though she wants to see venture capital at 50% women, Pao said the engineering team at Reddit is only made up of 14% women engineers. "It's a small number. It's not great," she admitted. "We're working on it."</p>
<p>But, as the audience found out, the numbers are worse when it comes to racial diversity, and the conversation becomes much more awkward to navigate.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/557d9f086da81136387e0302-1200-924/ellen-pao-and-dave-mcclure-talk-at-premoneyjpg.jpg" border="0" alt="Ellen Pao and Dave McClure talk at PreMoney.JPG"></p>
<p>Here's an excerpt of when McClure started asking Pao about what the numbers are like:</p>
<blockquote class="blockquote">
<p>McClure: "We're talking about this later this afternoon, but a lot of time people talk about diversity like women's is the only issue in diversity, and there's a lot of other types of diversity to think about. So, I'll ask you, how many African-American or black people work at Reddit? How many Hispanic American or Hispanic people work at Reddit?"</p>
<p>Pao: "We haven't counted. We have one African-American engineer. We just hired a general counsel, Melissa Tidwell, who is an African-American woman. I think we have three other African-American people working."</p>
<p>McClure: "Do you ask people to self identify?"</p>
<p>Pao: "No."</p>
<p>McClure: "How do you know if this is a stat or a <a href="http://www.klipfolio.com/resources/kpi-examples">KPI</a> that I should be considering? Am I more racist for asking people or for not asking people?"</p>
<p>Pao: "I don't know. When I look around I want to see diversity on the team."</p>
<p>McClure: "I'm pretty sure there are no black people in Silicon Valley."</p>
<p>Pao: "I don't know, are there any in the room here?"</p>
<p>McClure: "Well, we're trying. I don't know, a few. Mostly speakers I think."</p>
<p>Pao: "It's very weird."</p>
<p>McClure: "That's meant as a very insensitive joke. There are a lot of black people in the Bay Area."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From the audience, it felt slightly cringe-inducing and uncomfortable.</p>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/premoney?src=hash">#premoney</a> Amazing how awkward the vibe was during a discussion of racial diversity. It's not nearly as mainstream as gender diversity, yet. </p>— Tyler Willis (@tylerwillis) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/609412766512709632">June 12, 2015</a>
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<p>It's not because McClure and Pao seemed out of line or inconsiderate. Rather, McClure came off as a little nervous (although he says he wasn't), and Pao was a well-spoken sparring partner for McClure's comments. </p>
<p>The audience tension came from realizing Pao's comment on the lack of African-Americans in the audience, albeit mostly a jab at McClure, was actually the truth. Her own company was an example of it.</p>
<p>Maybe feeling uncomfortable is actually a good thing.</p>
<p><span>The trouble is we haven't figured out how to talk about the diversity problem in tech, let alone how to address it.</span></p>
<p>"I'm not trying to make a joke about this," McClure said shortly after the exchange quoted above. "I feel like this a real issue that we don't talk about very much, and it's uncomfortable to talk about this."</p>
<p>"It's hard because it's so complicated," Pao said. "I feel like people are having a hard time because if you say something, and you didn't bring in other types of minorities, other types of issues, and then you get some flack for it, are you being sensitive about all the other issues that are involved? So maybe it's just better to stay quiet."</p>
<p>We have to give credit to McClure and the conference for at least forcing an industry to confront its problems.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-doesnt-negotiate-salaries-ellen-pao-2015-6" >Ellen Pao: Reddit doesn't negotiate salaries because that helps keep the playing field even for women</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ellen-pao-dave-mcclure-discuss-racial-diversity-at-premoney-conference-awkward-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gina-bianchini-gender-tech-degree-2014-6">Gina Bianchini: Here's The Best Way To Handle Gender And Other Biases In Silicon Valley</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-users-call-for-a-woman-ceo-2015-6Twitter users want a woman to be the company's next CEO (TWTR)http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-users-call-for-a-woman-ceo-2015-6
Thu, 11 Jun 2015 18:55:01 -0400Cale Guthrie Weissman
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/549d5af76bb3f7d268071aea-600-/458734420.jpg" border="0" alt="Dick Costolo" width="600"></p><p>Change is afoot at Twitter. The company just announced that its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-ceo-dick-costolo-will-step-down-2015-6">current CEO Dick Costolo will step down</a> from his post, and co-founder Jack Dorsey will act as interim CEO.</p>
<p>But the question remains: Who will be hired as the company's next full-time CEO?</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">We won't know until a selection committee is formed and it makes a formal decision. But Twitter users have already begun voicing their opinions. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">And, for many, diversity is key.</span></p>
<p>With that, a bevy of users have begun tweeting their support for a woman to take the helm of the company.</p>
<p>Here are some examples:</p>
<div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Twitter needs a female CEO. </p>— Mike Monteiro (@monteiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/609105831024402432">June 11, 2015</a>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
I hope that the next Twitter CEO is a woman who actually uses the platform. </p>— Aleen Simms (@Aleen) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/609117281163948033">June 11, 2015</a>
</blockquote>
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<div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Twitter's new CEO search committed is made up of three men. Perhaps the first search should be to diversify that committee. </p>— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/609109140049231872">June 11, 2015</a>
</blockquote>
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<div><div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Someone named Peter 2X more likely to be on <a href="https://twitter.com/twitter">@Twitter</a> CEO search committee than a woman. </p>— Elizabeth Breese (@EBBreese) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/609110951024062465">June 11, 2015</a>
</blockquote>
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</div></div>
<p class="embed-spacer">Some people, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snoop-dogg-twitter-ceo-replacements-nominate-themselves-2015-6">such as Snoop Dogg</a>, have already stepped forward as potential candidates. Others have <a href="https://twitter.com/esbortz/status/609102661003132928">already called</a> for people like Sheryl Sandberg to be considered.</p>
<p class="embed-spacer">But now, we just have to wait and see if the committee will heed these tweeters' advice.</p>
<p class="embed-spacer"></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"></p>
<p class="embed-spacer"></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/firetweet-gives-mobile-twitter-access-in-censored-countries-2015-6" >Here's an Android app that gives people in censored countries access to Twitter </a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-users-call-for-a-woman-ceo-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-power-user-hacks-2015-4">5 clever iPhone tricks only power users know about</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-discusses-diversity-promises-a-woman-speaker-at-wwdc-keynote-jackson-ahrendts-young-smith-2015-6Tim Cook promises we'll see a female speaker at Apple's big keynote (AAPL)http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-discusses-diversity-promises-a-woman-speaker-at-wwdc-keynote-jackson-ahrendts-young-smith-2015-6
Mon, 08 Jun 2015 04:26:00 -0400Rob Price
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5575a0c9dd08953a0b8b459e-1200-924/angela-ahrendts-apple-store-3.jpg" alt="Angela Ahrendts Apple Store" border="0"></p><p>Apple's biggest event of the year, WWDC, starts Monday.</p>
<p>The Worldwide Developers Conference is Apple's annual gathering of developers. It's where Apple lays out the roadmap for its iPhone, Mac, and, now, Watch software.&nbsp;</p>
<p>On Sunday, CEO&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Tim Cook has spoke out strongly on diversity issues, labelling them central to "the future of our company."</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This is a bit rich coming from Cook, considering that in the last seven media events, <a href="http://qz.com/422340/all-the-women-on-stage-at-apple-keynotes-charted/">Apple has never had a female executive on stage</a>.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But that could finally change Monday. In an interview, Cook teased that we will finally see a woman on stage. If true, this would be a big, welcome change for Apple.</span></p>
<p><a href="http://mashable.com/2015/06/08/tim-cook-apple-diversity-women-future/">In an interview with Mashable</a>, the 54-year-old CEO discussed the ongoing struggle to attract women and minority ethnic groups to the tech industry.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Big tech companies including </span><a href="http://fortune.com/2015/06/01/google-diversity-demographics/">Google</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> and </span><a href="https://blog.twitter.com/2014/building-a-twitter-we-can-be-proud-of">Twitter</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> — and Apple — have begun publishing diversity reports, outlining the make-up of the companies and their efforts to expand this.</span></p>
<p>Apple's 2014 report — its first — revealed 70% of global employees are male, and 55% of its workers (in the US) are white. (These figures, <a href="http://recode.net/2014/08/12/apples-diversity-report-70-percent-male-55-percent-white-in-u-s/">as Re/code noted at the time</a>, include Apple's retail presence — unlike most other tech companies' reports.)</p>
<p>Cook told Mashable's Christina Warren that the company is <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/06/08/tim-cook-apple-diversity-women-future/">determined to make headway on this</a>. "I think it's our fault — 'our' meaning the whole tech community ... I think in general we haven't done enough to reach out and show young women that it's cool to do it and how much fun it can be."</p>
<p>But Cook also frames the need for diversity in economic terms, arguing it will help Apple's succeed as a business. "I think the most diverse group will produce the best product, I firmly believe that."</p>
<p>He goes on: "Diversity leads to better products, and we're all about making products that enrich peoples' lives, then you obviously put a ton of energy behind diversity the same way you would put a ton of energy behind anything else that is truly important."</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5575a136dd08959a0b8b456d-1200-800/181311772.jpg" alt="tim cook iphone apple store 5s" border="0"></p>
<p>Speaking on the need for stronger role models to encourage women in tech, Cook strongly suggests there will be at least one woman talking during Apple's keynote. "You'll see a change tomorrow," he said. The obvious choice here is Angela Ahrendts, Apple's retail chief who has been instrumental in the roll-out of the Apple Watch.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5575a269dd0895f52e8b4581-1200-924/lisa-jackson-apple-executive-vice-president-environmental-initiatives.png" alt="lisa jackson apple executive vice president environmental initiatives" border="0">But another possibility is <a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/pr/bios/">Lisa Jackson</a>, Apple's vice president of environmental initiatives. Apple has doubled-down on its environmental commitments over the past year, announcing new European data centres in Ireland and Denmark powered entirely by renewable energy, as well as a massive solar plant in China.</p>
<p>The third and last female executive is Denise Young-Smith, vice president of worldwide human resources. <a href="http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/08/12/apple-inc-diversity-video-narrated-by-new-vp-of-human-resources-denise-young-smith">Young-Smith has previously narrated a video released by Apple about diversity</a>, so she could be addressing the issue at the conference directly.</p>
<p>Any of these are a possibility, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-raise-profile-of-other-apple-executives-2015-3">given the CEO has previously spoken out about his desire to "rise the public profile" of members of the executive team</a> in a way that didn't happen under his predecessor Steve Jobs' watch. But it is revealing of the work Apple still has to do on diversity that of its 15 top-tier executives, only three — Ahrendts, Jackson, and Young-Smith — are women.</p>
<p>Either way, it won't be the first time <em>ever</em> that a woman has featured at an Apple keynote. <a href="http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/06/08/too-many-dicks-on-the-dancefloor/">As the Next Web points out</a>, the company sometimes has female developers on-stage — "but not nearly as frequently as their male counterparts."</p>
<p>The Apple CEO has discussed diversity, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304527504579172302377638002">notably in a 2013 article for the Wall Street Journal</a>. "Embracing people's individuality is a matter of basic human dignity and civil rights," he wrote. "It also turns out to be great for the creativity that drives our business."</p>
<p>Cook, who is openly gay, has long been outspoken on social issues. <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-30/tim-cook-speaks-up">He first addressed his sexuality publicly in an op-ed for Bloomberg</a>, saying he is "proud to be gay" and wanted to speak out because of the "fear and abuse" others have faced because of their sexuality.</p>
<p>"We pave the sunlit path towards justice together, brick by brick," Cook wrote. "This is my brick."</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-discusses-diversity-promises-a-woman-speaker-at-wwdc-keynote-jackson-ahrendts-young-smith-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-tim-cook-unveiled-apple-watch-tech-conference-2015-4">Flashback: Here's how Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-are-using-blind-auditions-to-hire-top-talent-2015-5Why companies are using 'blind auditions' to hire top talenthttp://www.businessinsider.com/companies-are-using-blind-auditions-to-hire-top-talent-2015-5
Sun, 07 Jun 2015 18:00:00 -0400Jacquelyn Smith
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5568bbb6eab8ea4a11a0e1ba-1200-546/thevoice-2.jpg" border="0" alt="thevoice" style="line-height: 1.5em; color: #000000;">Anyone who suspects they've been turned down for a job due to their race, sex, age, socio-economic background, or educational pedigree knows how unfair and frustrating it is to be discriminated against for something that has </span>nothing<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to do with your capabilities.</span></p>
<p>But unfortunatel<span style="background-color: #ffffff;">y, hiring managers —</span> who typically get between 85 and 124 résumés for any given entry-level job opening — do it all the time.</p>
<p>Three entrepreneurs have taken it upon themselves to remedy the problem.&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">They developed software that allows candidates to "blind audition" for a job,</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;meaning employers know nothing about the the job seeker's ethnicity, gender, age, or educational background when they review their application and decide whether to invite them in for an interview. Big companies like&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dolby.com/us/en/index.html">Dolby</a> and <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/">Mozilla</a> have already signed up.</span></p>
<p>It all started when Petar Vujosevic, 35, Kedar Iyer, 35, and Ashray Baruah, 28, met by chance in 2012. They quickly learned they had one thing in common: all three had trouble making the career moves they desired at some point in their lives because of "implicit biases associated with résumé screening," Vujosevic tells Business Insider.</p>
<p>At the time, Vujosevic was working as a freelance advertising strategist in Holland, Iyer was a strategist at ad agency TBWA/RAAD in Dubai, and Baruah had just quit his job as a web developer in Dubai.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Upon meeting and discussing the fact they had all been victims of biased hiring, they decided almost immediately they wanted to do something about it — "and that's how GapJumpers was born," Vujosevic explains.</p>
<p>"It came from our desire to make hiring more about actual skills than keywords on a résumé,"&nbsp;Vujosevic says.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/556892976bb3f7574ba0e1b5-875-437/gapjumpers-2.jpg" border="0" alt="gapjumpers" style="color: #000000;"></p>
<p>GapJumpers, which launched in June 2014, is a software platform that helps remove hiring bias through blind audit<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">ions.</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br></span></p>
<p>"Our platform is a lot like the reality TV competition show, 'The Voice,'" Vujosevic explains. "The judges have their backs turned away from the talent, and they decide whether to proceed to the next round based on the contestant's vocal skills — not their looks, not their race, not their gender. The judges are not biased or influenced by anything other than the skills."<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>A blind audition in the job search context means that applicants are "first judged on their skills, not on where they studied, where they grew up, or whether they are male or female," he explains.&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">GapJumpers asks each job seeker to anonymously solve skills-based challenges</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;to prove they are qualified and capable of doing the job they're applying for.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The software then&nbsp;<span>strips each job applicant's résumé and application of details like their name (which could reveal sex, race, and/or ethnicity), graduation year (which can give away age), college (which tells the employer what type of school you went to), and address (which could drive them to make assumptions about your socio-economic background).</span></span></p>
<p>The tool helps job seekers who might otherwise be overlooked, perhaps because they went to community college, or because&nbsp;<span>they're a woman seeking a job in a male-dominated industry, </span>for instance.&nbsp;"GapJumpers also assists companies in finding the very best, most diverse group of talent," which they might have missed out on due to unconscious bias, says Vujosevic.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Blind auditions, of course, are not a replacement for face-to-face interviews. They are simply a first step in the process, and a "better way to prepare applicants and employers for those in-person interviews," he adds. "They make the quality of skills the first impression and point of reference, instead of the résumé."<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Since launching last year, he says he has seen a significant increase in awareness around the role of unconscious bias in the workplace.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p>For example,&nbsp;Google <a href="https://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html">has started sharing its workforce demographics</a> publicly. Google <a href="http://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html#tab=leadership">says</a>, "All of our efforts, including going<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> public with these numbers, are designed to help us recruit and develop the world's most talented and diverse people."&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"More executive leaders are acknowledging and trying to address the problem than ever," says&nbsp;<span>Vujosevic.</span><span>&nbsp;</span></span></span></p>
<p>And they should.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/11/26/diversity-is-good-why-doesnt-everyone-agree/">Washington Post's <span>Joann Weiner</span>&nbsp;reported</a> that global companies with at least one woman on the board have higher average returns on equity, lower debt ratios, and better average growth, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.credit-suisse.com/newsletter/doc/gender_diversity.pdf">study</a>&nbsp;of more than 2,000 global companies by the Credit Suisse Research Institute.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>She&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/11/26/diversity-is-good-why-doesnt-everyone-agree/">also highlighted</a> a Gallup&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/166220/business-benefits-gender-diversity.aspx">survey&nbsp;</a>of American retail and hospitality businesses, which found that gender-diverse retail and hospitality companies have better financial outcomes than those dominated by one gender.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Weiner&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">cited a Scientific American article by Katherine W. Phillips, professor and senior vice dean at Columbia Business School, saying "p<span>eople work harder, are more creative, and are more diligent when they work with or around a diverse group of people."</span></span></p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/55678b2decad040f2023ad5b-1200-600/screen shot 2015-05-28 at 5.39.15 pm.png" border="0" alt="gapjumpers"></p>
<p>For these reasons, and others, GapJumpers already has seven clients on board — including <span>Dolby Labs, Sendgrid, Chegg, and Mozilla —&nbsp;</span>and is currently running live pilots with another six. It has an additional eight companies on the pilot waiting list that will be allowed on the platform in the coming months.</p>
<p>Companies pay an annual subscription fee, which ranges from $5,000 to $40,000,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">for the use of the platform and for access to GapJumpers' candidate network.&nbsp;Some companies only pay for use of the platform to host blind auditions; others pay for both screening and sourcing.</span></p>
<p>If a company makes a hire using GapJumpers, there's no additional "success fee," which many recruiters charge.</p>
<p>GapJumpers is free for job seekers.</p>
<p>Of course, "blind auditions" aren't beneficial to&nbsp;everyone.&nbsp;Some job seekers <em>want</em> hiring managers to see where they went to school, for example, which could&nbsp;help them land interviews and jobs.</p>
<p>But in the big picture, GapJumpers aims to<em>&nbsp;</em>help solve one of the biggest problems with interviewing, and seems to be making progress.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Vujosevic says the company recently analyzed data from 1,200 blind auditions and learned that 54% of those who participated were women, while 46% were men. About 58% of those selected to an interview after the blind audition round were women, and 68% of those who ended up getting hired were women.</span></p>
<p>They also found that there was a 15% increase in the number of community college graduates who got to the in-person audition round by starting with a blind audition, compared to the number of community college graduates who land interviews by applying for jobs the traditional way.</p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">"The biggest hesitation of employers, and biggest barrier, is that many companies&nbsp;know&nbsp;that improving diversity numbers takes a lot of effort, time, and commitment.&nbsp;And that is true,"&nbsp;says Vujosevic.&nbsp;<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, sans-serif;">So with GapJumpers, we try to give you a way to start improving diversity with a small,&nbsp;managable&nbsp;behavior change</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, sans-serif;">: instead of looking at résumés, give applicants a blind audition."</span></span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-diverse-companies-in-the-us-2015-5" >The 25 best companies for diversity in the US </a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-are-using-blind-auditions-to-hire-top-talent-2015-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/job-interview-cliches-answers-career-search-advice-2015-3">7 clichés you should never use in a job interview </a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/stop-overemphasizing-cultural-fit-2015-6Yes, 'cultural fit' matters — but it may not mean what you thinkhttp://www.businessinsider.com/stop-overemphasizing-cultural-fit-2015-6
Mon, 01 Jun 2015 17:30:38 -0400Rachel Sugar
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/556c8a14eab8ea541eb5ebbf-905-679/penguins-13.jpg" border="0" alt="penguins"></p><p>Theoretically, it makes sense: hiring managers want candidates who will be naturally aligned with the company's mission and values.</p>
<p>Presumably, it's good for candidates, too — working in a place where you fundamentally don't fit in is miserable.</p>
<p>But as "cultural fit" becomes a top priority for assessing potential hires — and according to <a href="http://www.cubiks.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Files%20ENG/Research%20Studies%20ENG/Cubiks%20Survey%20Results%20July%202013.pdf">one study</a>, mentioned in the New York Times, more than 80% of hiring managers say it's their number one concern — a new problem arises: managers aren't hiring based on company values.</p>
<p>They're hiring the people they'd most want to grab beers with. And the potential result is a dangerously homogeneous workforce.</p>
<p>It's not that focusing on cultural fit is necessarily wrong, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/opinion/sunday/guess-who-doesnt-fit-in-at-work.html">writes</a> Lauren&nbsp;<span>A. Rivera, associate professor of management and&nbsp;</span><span>organizations at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, i</span>n a&nbsp;Times op-ed.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em; background-color: #ffffff;">"When done carefully, selecting new workers this way can make organizations more productive and profitable," <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/opinion/sunday/guess-who-doesnt-fit-in-at-work.html?smid=nytcore-iphone-share&amp;smprod=nytcore-iphone"><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">she says</span></a>, citing Southwest Airlines (where they look for "willingness to provide a wacky experience") and Bridgewater Associates (where they seek out candidates who can take criticism) as examples of the system working.</span></p>
<p>But too often, Rivera's research suggests, the system <em>isn't</em> working. She writes:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">To judge fit, interviewers commonly relied on chemist<span style="background-color: #ffffff;">ry. "The best way I could describe it," o</span>ne member of a law firm's hiring committee told me, "is like if you were on a date. You kind of know when there's a match." Many used the "airport test." As a managing director at an investment bank put it, "Would I want to be stuck in an airport in Minneapolis in a snowstorm with them?"</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The problem is that the people you'd most like to be stuck in the Minneapolis airport with aren't necessarily the best employees — more likely, they're the employees most like you. She continues:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Discovering shared experiences was one of the most powerful sources of chemistry, but interviewers were primarily interested in new hires whose hobbies, hometowns and biographies matched their own. Bonding over rowing college crew, getting certified in scuba, sipping single-malt Scotches in the Highlands or dining at Michelin-starred restaurants was evidence of fit; sharing a love of teamwork or a passion for pleasing clients was not.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>You can see where this is going: not all competitive rowers or single-malt Scotch fans share a demographic profile, but it's likely that they do. And that, Rivera says, can "<span>keep demographic and cultural diversity low."&nbsp;</span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/556c9d466bb3f74b65cba7ad-901-675/startup-employees-11.jpg" border="0" alt="startup employees" style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But a too-homogeneous workforce — whether that's a classic good ole boys club or a bunch of 20-something </span><a href="http://valleywag.gawker.com/culture-fit-is-a-shitty-excuse-for-marginalizing-wome-1186914306">white dudes in hoodies</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> — &nbsp;is actually bad for companies. And it's not "<span style="background-color: #ffffff;">just"&nbsp;a PC i</span>ssue; it's a financial one.</span></p>
<p>Study after study has shown the diverse groups function more effectively.</p>
<p>BloombergBusiness points to a 2009 study that showed companies "with the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-01-03/job-applicants-cultural-fit-can-trump-qualifications">highest levels of racial diversity</a>" reported an average of 15 times more sales revenue their less diverse competitors.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;Slate highlights another study that suggested companies with <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/07/31/companies_with_women_on_their_boards_perform_better.html">women on their boards</a> perform better. Rivera cites research finding that groups with "out-group newcomers" — new people who don't belong to the same social network as the existing team — <a href="http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/better_decisions_through_diversity">are significantly better at problem solving</a>.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">So what should the search for cultural fit look like? In the Times, Rivera <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/opinion/sunday/guess-who-doesnt-fit-in-at-work.html?smid=nytcore-iphone-share&amp;smprod=nytcore-iphone">suggests a four-pronged approach</a>:</span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">1. &nbsp;Be clear with potential hires about the organization's culture&nbsp;</span><br><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">2. Make sure the way you're defining cultural fit is "closely aligned with business goals" (mutual passion for scuba/whiskey/puppies doesn't count).</span><br><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">3. Create "formal procedures" for assessing fit, so it's not all up to the gut feeling of the hiring manager.</span><br><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">4. Limit the amount fit is factored into hiring.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It may be human nature to want to hire people who are like us, but it's a bias worth overcoming. And take comfort: if you and your new hire <em>are</em> ever stuck in the Minneapolis airport, you can use some of your new earnings to buy a magazine.&nbsp;</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/study-working-mothers-and-career-success-2015-5" >Science reveals an early predictor of success that should come as a relief to working parents</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stop-overemphasizing-cultural-fit-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-recruiters-read-resumes-for-jobs-2014-10">Here's Exactly What A Hiring Manager Scans For When Reviewing Resumes</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/google-diversity-statistics-update-2015-6Google just updated its diversity statistics — there's early progress, but still a long way to go (GOOG)http://www.businessinsider.com/google-diversity-statistics-update-2015-6
Mon, 01 Jun 2015 17:23:00 -0400Jillian D'Onfro
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/556ccde06da811b5186fbf9a-887-665/google-employees-33.jpg" border="0" alt="google employees">A little over a year ago, Google made waves in&nbsp;</span>Silicon Valley&nbsp;by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-diversity-numbers-2014-5">publishing its diversity statistics</a>, hoping to open up the conversation and causing <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pandora-diversity-report-2014-8">a slew of other tech companies</a> to follow suit.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Now, it's continuing to keep itself accountable by <a href="http://www.google.com/diversity/">updating its diversity page</a>&nbsp;with all-new statistics.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"Though we still have a long way to go, we’re seeing some early progress," <a href="https://plus.google.com/+google/posts/1VbnjxYQ5dv">the company notes</a> in a Google+ post.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Some of the highlights:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>21% of the tech hires Google made last year were women</strong><span>&nbsp;and the overall number of women in technical roles went up by 1%.</span></li>
<li><span><span><strong>This year, 22% of software engineers hired through campus outreach were women</strong> — more than the percentage of women pursuing CS degrees today (18%)</span></span></li>
<li><span><strong>The increase in Black and Hispanic Googlers outpaced Google’s hiring growth overall</strong><span>&nbsp;— but they still make up just 2% and 3% of the company, respectively.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Google recently pledged to<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-diversity-update-2015-5"> spend $150 million on diversity initiatives</a> over the next year, like expanding its formal Diversity Core program for employees, recruiting from increasingly varied sources, and working with partners to change the perception of computer science.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">By attacking tech's homogeneity from many different angles, Google hopes to slowly but steadily change the status quo.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"We're all terrible at it," chief business officer Omid Kordestani said on stage about&nbsp;</span><span></span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/omid-kordestani-leaving-google-then-coming-back-2015-5">diversity in the tech community</a> at the recent Code Conference<span>. "And we have to be honest about it. There's not a silver-bullet answer here."</span></span></p>
<h2><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In techie roles, Google is still struggling:</span></h2>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/556cc3156bb3f7676605d4c9-1082-572/screen shot 2015-06-01 at 1.32.55 pm.png" border="0" alt="Google Diversity "></p>
<h2>And the leadership is still mostly white and male:</h2>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/556cc5a56da811f55c6fbf9a-1096-577/screen shot 2015-06-01 at 1.49.41 pm.png" border="0" alt="DiversityGoog"></p>
<h2>But things are looking better for the company overall:<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/556cc315ecad04d0637ac4c7-1087-576/screen shot 2015-06-01 at 1.32.46 pm.png" border="0" alt="Google Diversity"></h2>
<p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-larry-page-has-changed-2015-5" >A long-time Google exec explains how Larry Page has changed over the years</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-diversity-statistics-update-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-terms-cost-2015-4">Here's how much you have to buy to make Amazon Prime worth it</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-are-using-blind-auditions-to-hire-top-talent-2015-5Why companies are using 'blind auditions' to hire top talenthttp://www.businessinsider.com/companies-are-using-blind-auditions-to-hire-top-talent-2015-5
Sun, 31 May 2015 08:00:00 -0400Jacquelyn Smith
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5568bbb6eab8ea4a11a0e1ba-1200-546/thevoice-2.jpg" border="0" alt="thevoice" style="line-height: 1.5em; color: #000000;">Anyone who suspects they've been turned down for a job due to their race, sex, age, socio-economic background, or educational pedigree knows how unfair and frustrating it is to be discriminated against for something that has </span>nothing<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> to do with your capabilities.</span></p>
<p>But unfortunatel<span style="background-color: #ffffff;">y, hiring managers —</span> who typically get between 85 and 124 résumés for any given entry-level job opening — do it all the time.</p>
<p>Three entrepreneurs have taken it upon themselves to remedy the problem.&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">They developed software that allows candidates to "blind audition" for a job,</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;meaning employers know nothing about the the job seeker's ethnicity, gender, age, or educational background when they review their application and decide whether to invite them in for an interview. Big companies like&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dolby.com/us/en/index.html">Dolby</a> and <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/">Mozilla</a> have already signed up.</span></p>
<p>It all started when Petar Vujosevic, 35, Kedar Iyer, 35, and Ashray Baruah, 28, met by chance in 2012. They quickly learned they had one thing in common: all three had trouble making the career moves they desired at some point in their lives because of "implicit biases associated with résumé screening," Vujosevic tells Business Insider.</p>
<p>At the time, Vujosevic was working as a freelance advertising strategist in Holland, Iyer was a strategist at ad agency TBWA/RAAD in Dubai, and Baruah had just quit his job as a web developer in Dubai.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Upon meeting and discussing the fact they had all been victims of biased hiring, they decided almost immediately they wanted to do something about it — "and that's how GapJumpers was born," Vujosevic explains.</p>
<p>"It came from our desire to make hiring more about actual skills than keywords on a résumé,"&nbsp;Vujosevic says.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/556892976bb3f7574ba0e1b5-875-437/gapjumpers-2.jpg" border="0" alt="gapjumpers" style="color: #000000;"></p>
<p>GapJumpers, which launched in June 2014, is a software platform that helps remove hiring bias through blind audit<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">ions.</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br></span></p>
<p>"Our platform is a lot like the reality TV competition show, 'The Voice,'" Vujosevic explains. "The judges have their backs turned away from the talent, and they decide whether to proceed to the next round based on the contestant's vocal skills — not their looks, not their race, not their gender. The judges are not biased or influenced by anything other than the skills."<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>A blind audition in the job search context means that applicants are "first judged on their skills, not on where they studied, where they grew up, or whether they are male or female," he explains.&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">GapJumpers asks each job seeker to anonymously solve skills-based challenges</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;to prove they are qualified and capable of doing the job they're applying for.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The software then&nbsp;<span>strips each job applicant's résumé and application of details like their name (which could reveal sex, race, and/or ethnicity), graduation year (which can give away age), college (which tells the employer what type of school you went to), and address (which could drive them to make assumptions about your socio-economic background).</span></span></p>
<p>The tool helps job seekers who might otherwise be overlooked, perhaps because they went to community college, or because&nbsp;<span>they're a woman seeking a job in a male-dominated industry, </span>for instance.&nbsp;"GapJumpers also assists companies in finding the very best, most diverse group of talent," which they might have missed out on due to unconscious bias, says Vujosevic.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Blind auditions, of course, are not a replacement for face-to-face interviews. They are simply a first step in the process, and a "better way to prepare applicants and employers for those in-person interviews," he adds. "They make the quality of skills the first impression and point of reference, instead of the résumé."<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Since launching last year, he says he has seen a significant increase in awareness around the role of unconscious bias in the workplace.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p>For example,&nbsp;Google <a href="https://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html">has started sharing its workforce demographics</a> publicly. Google <a href="http://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html#tab=leadership">says</a>, "All of our efforts, including going<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> public with these numbers, are designed to help us recruit and develop the world's most talented and diverse people."&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"More executive leaders are acknowledging and trying to address the problem than ever," says&nbsp;<span>Vujosevic.</span><span>&nbsp;</span></span></span></p>
<p>And they should.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/11/26/diversity-is-good-why-doesnt-everyone-agree/">Washington Post's <span>Joann Weiner</span>&nbsp;reported</a> that global companies with at least one woman on the board have higher average returns on equity, lower debt ratios, and better average growth, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.credit-suisse.com/newsletter/doc/gender_diversity.pdf">study</a>&nbsp;of more than 2,000 global companies by the Credit Suisse Research Institute.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>She&nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/11/26/diversity-is-good-why-doesnt-everyone-agree/">also highlighted</a> a Gallup&nbsp;<a href="http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/166220/business-benefits-gender-diversity.aspx">survey&nbsp;</a>of American retail and hospitality businesses, which found that gender-diverse retail and hospitality companies have better financial outcomes than those dominated by one gender.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Weiner&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">cited a Scientific American article by Katherine W. Phillips, professor and senior vice dean at Columbia Business School, saying "p<span>eople work harder, are more creative, and are more diligent when they work with or around a diverse group of people."</span></span></p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/55678b2decad040f2023ad5b-1200-600/screen shot 2015-05-28 at 5.39.15 pm.png" border="0" alt="gapjumpers"></p>
<p>For these reasons, and others, GapJumpers already has seven clients on board — including <span>Dolby Labs, Sendgrid, Chegg, and Mozilla —&nbsp;</span>and is currently running live pilots with another six. It has an additional eight companies on the pilot waiting list that will be allowed on the platform in the coming months.</p>
<p>Companies pay an annual subscription fee, which ranges from $5,000 to $40,000,&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">for the use of the platform and for access to GapJumpers' candidate network.&nbsp;Some companies only pay for use of the platform to host blind auditions; others pay for both screening and sourcing.</span></p>
<p>If a company makes a hire using GapJumpers, there's no additional "success fee," which many recruiters charge.</p>
<p>GapJumpers is free for job seekers.</p>
<p>Of course, "blind auditions" aren't beneficial to&nbsp;everyone.&nbsp;Some job seekers <em>want</em> hiring managers to see where they went to school, for example, which could&nbsp;help them land interviews and jobs.</p>
<p>But in the big picture, GapJumpers aims to<em>&nbsp;</em>help solve one of the biggest problems with interviewing, and seems to be making progress.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Vujosevic says the company recently analyzed data from 1,200 blind auditions and learned that 54% of those who participated were women, while 46% were men. About 58% of those selected to an interview after the blind audition round were women, and 68% of those who ended up getting hired were women.</span></p>
<p>They also found that there was a 15% increase in the number of community college graduates who got to the in-person audition round by starting with a blind audition, compared to the number of community college graduates who land interviews by applying for jobs the traditional way.</p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">"The biggest hesitation of employers, and biggest barrier, is that many companies&nbsp;know&nbsp;that improving diversity numbers takes a lot of effort, time, and commitment.&nbsp;And that is true,"&nbsp;says Vujosevic.&nbsp;<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, sans-serif;">So with GapJumpers, we try to give you a way to start improving diversity with a small,&nbsp;managable&nbsp;behavior change</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, sans-serif;">: instead of looking at résumés, give applicants a blind audition."</span></span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-diverse-companies-in-the-us-2015-5" >The 25 best companies for diversity in the US </a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-are-using-blind-auditions-to-hire-top-talent-2015-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/job-interview-cliches-answers-career-search-advice-2015-3">7 clichés you should never use in a job interview </a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/code-conference-diversity-was-a-huge-topic-2015-5Everyone at tech's most elite conference was buzzing about this one problemhttp://www.businessinsider.com/code-conference-diversity-was-a-huge-topic-2015-5
Fri, 29 May 2015 17:26:00 -0400Jillian D'Onfro
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5568c0ec6bb3f72876a0e1b4-1200-924/ellen-pao-25.jpg" border="0" alt="ellen pao"></p><p>This week, Re/code hosted a major tech conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, outside of Los Angeles.</p>
<p>The tech news site, which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vox-media-buys-kara-swishers-tech-trade-publication-recode-2015-5">Vox just acquired</a>, packed the schedule with tech stars like Snapchat CEO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-ceo-evan-spiegel-we-need-to-ipo-2015-5">Evan Spiegel</a>, Twitter CEO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/dick-costolo-says-not-worried-about-losing-job-at-twitter-2015-5">Dick Costolo</a>, Google chief business officer <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-larry-page-has-changed-2015-5">Omid Kordestani</a>, and GoPro CEO <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gopro-new-products-2015-5">Nick Woodman</a>, among many others.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Throughout the varied conversations ran one common vein: What can be done about tech's diversity problem?</p>
<p>Ellen Pao, who lost her gender discrimination suit against Kleiner Perkins earlier this year, said on stage that she wished that she could offer a set of bullet points for how to make Silicon Valley more of a meritocracy, where people are rewarded for their skills without regard to their gender or appearance. She said it's far from that today.</p>
<p>"Silicon Valley <em>wants</em> to think of itself as a tolerant place," she said.&nbsp;</p>
<p>After watching Re/code's reporters ask everyone about diversity on stage, we asked some attendees what they thought:</p>
<ul>
<li>Everyone that we asked applauded Re/code's decision to make diversity a major talking point at the conference, though several said that they had hoped for better responses from the speakers. "It's like they all heard one person answer and decided to say the same thing," one VC griped.</li>
<li>"We wouldn't have been talking about this topic so much at this time last year," one attendee mulled, indicating that it was a sign of progress that the entire tech industry is at least acknowledging how big the diversity problem is.&nbsp;</li>
<li>The CTO of a software-as-a-service company told us that his company had a very diverse workforce — across genders, race, and sexual orientation — but fewer women in executive roles. We've definitely noticed, he said, but we don't know what to do about it.&nbsp;</li>
<li>The founder of one VC firm admitted that his fund invests in very few women-led companies, but that it's largely because he doesn't see many. He said that he believes the pipeline issue is the biggest cause of that, but didn't know what his firm in particular could do to change that.&nbsp;</li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A few people felt frustrated that on stage Spiegel tried to say that workplace diversity wasn't any more of a problem in tech than anywhere else. "That's just wrong," one attendee said, adding that he gave Spiegel some leeway on his answer, considering the CEO is only 24 and still learning how to speak publicly about sensitive topics. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">(Side note: Throughout the conference, more than a dozen people told us that they were more impressed by Spiegel than anyone else at the conference. "I really can't believe he's only 24" was a common refrain.)</span></li>
<li>One woman executive said that she got a little tired of hearing all the very-similar answers. As women in tech, we primarily have to be problem solvers to get ahead, she said, and not enough solutions were suggested on stage. Although she said that sometimes, as a female exec, she feels overwhelmed by how often people want to talk about gender diversity, she would rather have the same conversations a million times than not be having them at all.&nbsp;</li>
<li>One woman said that hearing Ellen Pao speak was the highlight of the conference to her, adding that she thought Pao came across much more poised and confident than she had in press coverage of the trial.&nbsp;</li>
<li>A former consultant said that in his last job, he made five suggestions to keep the firm from bleeding female talent, like to allowing mothers to choose accounts with less travel or to not have to present on Mondays, so they wouldn't spend the weekends working. Only one of his suggestions was implemented. Now, he thinks, more companies are receptive to the types of changes he had suggested, as the dialogue around diversity in tech has changed. "The more we talk about these issues, the better," he said.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Another attendee pointed the question back at Re/code, questioning the publication's racial diversity and pointing out that of the roughly 27 speakers, only six were women.&nbsp;</li>
<li>"We've taken a close look at our recruiting strategies," one attendee said. As a result, their company realized that it needed to start casting a wider net when looking for new talent to increase diversity.</li>
</ul>
<p>On stage, execs for some of the most powerful companies in tech talked about the struggle. Kordestani said that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-diversity-update-2015-5">Google is putting $150 million behind</a>&nbsp;spurring better workplace diversity. Apple exec Jeff Williams, who oversees operations, said that the company is trying to mitigate the "pipeline problem" — that less women and minorities get a tech-focused education — by donating $100 million to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/k-12/connected">the White House initiative ConnectED</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Pivotal CEO Paul Maritz said that he's taken a close look lately at subtle ways the company's culture may be hindering the success of women and trying to change them.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"You need to know what the root problem is or you're just putting Band-Aids on things," he said. "I feel like we've been putting Band-Aids on this issue for 25 years."&nbsp;</p>
<p>Overall, everybody at the conference was talking about diversity, which was a good thing, even if no one could posture the perfect solution. Better diversity in the tech industry isn't something that will happen overnight, and it will take a deep commitment to tweaking company culture and recruiting to change the statistics.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"We're all terrible at it," Kordestani said of Google's poor diversity statistics. "And we have to be honest about it. There's not a silver-bullet answer here."&nbsp;</p>
<p>Watch <a href="http://recode.net/2015/05/29/tech-leaders-confront-the-lack-of-diversity-at-their-companies-video/">Re/code's video compilation</a> of some speakers' answers about diversity here.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-ceo-evan-spiegel-we-need-to-ipo-2015-5" >Snapchat CEO: 'We need to IPO'</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/code-conference-diversity-was-a-huge-topic-2015-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kids-choose-between-iphone-and-samsung-2015-4">Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/business-schools-with-the-most-diversity-2015-4The 25 most diverse business schoolshttp://www.businessinsider.com/business-schools-with-the-most-diversity-2015-4
Sun, 17 May 2015 11:01:00 -0400Kathleen Elkins and Skye Gould
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